10 11S 127 46W
Libertyatsea10
Sat 10 Jul 2010 06:49
All fine here on Liberty
we got going this morning in 10 knots of wind, .and got the pole out. It is a bit of a faf,
and I had been avoiding it..but this morning we went for it
Everything went smoothly and soon Genoa was up and goose winging delightfully. WE made about 5 knots
and the boat was flat so we set about washing the silver! and doing a deck check. this entails starting at the bow and
checking every bit of rigging washing off with vinegar and soap, rinsing and then polishing. Three hours later Liberty sparkled and we had a good idea
of the wear and tear on rigging. We found that one shackle which was quite substantial, which we had used in the ARC as a down haul, had split, right through
the metal. Nasty; We found two blocks which have given up, cracked throught eh sheave, bet we have replacements, cant imagine there are too many chandleries
in Fatu Hiva. Otherwise all is well.
We then managed to fix the auto helm arm which was wrongly fitted after the lightning strike. Thank heavens it was a calm day as the arm is under the steering quadrant
in the locker under the floor at the back! We took it off and replaced with the right spacers and all is well. Another stroke of luck as the steering quadrant had ground through
the protective sleeve of the cylinder, much more and we would have had no autohelm ( which would have meant hand steering the rest of the way no thank you ). moral of the story, Don't let any one touch your boat...ever!
Don't trust anyone who says they are experts in anything nautical, they are bluffing.
Juergen cooked up a smashing meal which was to be his world cup victory meal, but instead it was his "pole dancing" certificate celebration. He passed his pole dancing with flying colours today on the pointy bit, whilst gyrating around the pole and flying the genoa. I think he is more pleased with his award than he would have been with a world cup win, who would not?
We finished off with fruit salad a la Benj and mountains of chocolate from Grum's secret stash. All sitting on deck watching a beautiful sunset.
Benj and I had an hour watching stars lying down in the cockpit, until Johan introduced Benj to an amazing programme on his PC all about stars and planets. We have discovered
that a partial eclipse will occur in the next 48 and they were able to model it on the PC. Benj was so excited, he is full of it and cant wait until the eclipse. He has no clue he has just spent three hours in education!
we are going well and keeping to about 10 degs south which is what we wanted, a far better course than that which faced us over the last few days. 628 miles to go ..
We are still on standby to assist the other yacht but hopefully things will work out for them.
What a beautiful day.
XXX